Booking Through Thursday: Weeding

"We’re moving in a couple weeks (the first time since I was 9 years old), and I’ve been going through my library of 3000+ books, choosing the books that I could bear to part with and NOT have to pack to move. Which made me wonder…

When’s the last time you weeded out your library? Do you regularly keep it pared down to your reading essentials? Or does it blossom into something out of control the minute you turn your back, like a garden after a Spring rain?

Or do you simply not get rid of books? At all? (This would have described me for most of my life, by the way.)

And–when you DO weed out books from your collection (assuming that you do) …what do you do with them? Throw them away (gasp)? Donate them to a charity or used bookstore? SELL them to a used bookstore? Trade them on Paperback Book Swap or some other exchange program?"

****

Technically, I've moved three times since June. I moved to camp in June and I had to pack up everything because my family was planning on moving at the time. When I got back from camp, I had to unpack and repack some things again for college. Then, a few weeks ago, my family actually moved. I keep on forgetting my address. I had my camp address memorized pretty well and then my college address, but I can't seem to remember my new home address and phone number!

I never really weed through my book collection. I don't have all that many. When I notice I have a book that I never read or never will read, I get rid of it. When I notice the children's books I saved for sentimental value are no longer so sentimental to me, I get rid of those too. In that case, those go to my little sister.

My big dilemma was which books I should bring with me to college. Most of my friends didn't bring any with them. I chose to bring classics and books that have the most chance of being required reading for a class as well as my favorite books that I'd like to reread again.